Fantasy (15)

Fantasy was an English progressive rock band, formed around 1970 in Gravesend, northwest Kent, UK. They started out as Chapel Farm with members Dave Metcalfe (keyboards), Paul Lawrence (guitar/vocals) and Dave Read (bass), together with drummer Brian Chatham and guitarist Bob Vann. They began by performing cover versions before focusing their attentions on their own material. With a support slot to Argent just three weeks away, tragedy struck the band when, turning up for a Melody Maker competition held at a hotel in Cliftonville, Bob Vann fell off the cliffs outside their hotel. Paul Lawrence recalls that "The rest of us had gone back inside the hotel, but we became worried because, as it was Bob's 18th birthday, he'd been drinking a lot." Bob lay on the beach below, and died in the ambulance on the way to a hospital. In spite of this awful blow to the them and the band, the group eventually decided to stick together, for Bob's sake if nothing else. With Brian Chatham also having left the line-up, Chapel Farm recruited guitarist Pete James and drummer Jon Webster from local band Joy, changed their name to Firequeen, and began supporting progressive heavyweights like The Edgar Broughton Band and Pink Fairies. After they sent out demos of their homegrown material (as heard on the Russian bootleg Beyond The Beyond), Polydor signed a three-year contract in spring 1973, on the condition that they changed ther name. "They didn't like Firequeen", recalls Dave Metcalfe, "as it was too close to Queen, and they said that Chapel Farm suggested that we were a country band." The name Fantasy was suggested. "We had no choice in the matter," remembers Paul Lawrence, "and we hated it right the way through our whole career. But in a way, they were right, because the name is quite representative of the sound of the music." Having signed a three-year contract in spring 1973, the group entered Chipping Norton Studios in May with producer Peter Sames, emerging with a ten-song album that would have delighted Genesis and Caravan fans had they heard it. Metcalfe remembers, "We just couldn't get through that barrier of recognition. I don't think Polydor understood our music, and our management appeared not to take us seriously enough." The label, then riding high with Slade, may have also detected a slight lack of commitment in the fact that the group members still maintained their day jobs. Originally titled Virgin On the Ridiculous, Paint A Picture appeared in the autumn, containing much of the group's stage set including The Award, a tribute to their late guitarist Bob Vann. Also included was the commercially inclined Politely Insane, which was written and recorded on the same day. Brass was later added, and the track provided Polydor with the single they wanted. It didn't give them the sort of sales figures they were looking for, however. Politely Insane was backed by the non-LP cut I Was Once Aware. Fantasy were disappointed but not disheartened by the poor response to Paint A Picture. They knew that their music was the kind that needed nurturing, and that audiences would take time to warm to their classically influenced and richly textured material. But after sharing the bill with Queen at the Marquee, they failed to follow up with regular concerts and any momentum set in motion by the LP quickly subsided, so when the group returned to the studio to record a follow-up in July 1974, again with producer Peter Sames, the mood was buoyant. "From the moment we went into the recording studio," recalls Dave Metcalfe, "we were absolutely confident we had an album that marked a big step forward. Unfortunately, the atmosphere wasn't good and things didn't work out, particularly with the producer who wasn't 100% behind it." Polydor rejected the tapes, Dave Metcalfe quit, and the band quietly disbanded.